First Nations Such As The Cree Nation And The Mohawk Nation Are Independent Nations Sharing A Common Land With Canada

I, the well-meaning Canadian have to admit that for the most part I have been ignorant to what the people of the First Nations, sharing this land with Canada have been saying since the beginning of their fight for recognition. I listened, but did not hear them and did the same thing as a well-intentioned Canadian as did that of the less well-intentioned Canadian and that is I assumed things that I should have not. I always assumed for instance these things:

That the orignal treaties signed were agreements of the First Nations Peoples to become Canadians, for the First Nations to accept being assimilated and all that they owned absorbed into Canada and to accept the rule of Canadian law willingly for certain concessions. I was shocked today to learn that this is the biggest lie ever told and that the treaties spoke of nation to nation sharing of this land and equal partnership, not governance. To keep insisting that for instance the Canadian government will allow for peaceful and law-abiding protests by First Nations People on their own land, but some how has the right to reopen roads, or bridges on their land if they choose to deny Canadians access to the parts that fall within their sovereign territory seems illegal to me since these independent First Nations do not legally fall under the jurisdiction of Canadian law.

That the Indian Act was a legal law and not the illegal one that it is. I say illegal law, because it was enforced on a people who were not under the legal jurisdiction of Canada and were an independent nation sharing the same land as Canada. This means that we have been stealing the natural resources on their lands and causing them to be dependant on hand outs when in fact if they were to manage their own natural resources, they are quite wealthy indeed. We used the Indian Act to commit genocide and are still engaging in it as a government and nation today. To this end it is we as the government of Canada that have gone as far to assume the power to determine who are to be considered as real Indians and everything else that is of importance to a people, when we know that only Canada has the right to determine what it is to be a Canadian and who can be considered one. Is this not what all these new immigration laws are supposed to be about?

That when Canada asked all of the provinces to join into one nation that it was not necessary to ask the First Nations, because they were already subject to Canadian law under their treatise and further by the Indian Act, but we now know that this is not true. The Indian Act is illegal by virtue of the First Nations not being under Canada’s legal jurisdiction and the treaties do not speak to them as Canadians, but as independent nations. The founding fathers of Canada forgot about asking the other nations which was the many First Nations to join in Confederation, or assumed in their arrogance which is more likely the case that they could just group all of these independent nations sharing the same land as Canada into one group and assume power over them and decide for them their agreement to fall under Canadian governance. This may have worked back then, but times have changed and through bad treatment of these people on every front they have opened their eyes and realised this need not be anymore, because we have no right to dominion over them and never had it.

The Canadian government of the day may have wrongfully assumed in their arrogance that what they considered a lesser people would readily give up who they were, there right to self-government, their language, culture and their ethnicity to become Canadians, but they were wrong and forgot to ask these nations, these people. By doing this and continuing to do this the Canadian government has put itself Canadians and Canada in violation of everything that we profess to be in terms of human rights, the right of sovereign nations right to self-determination, self governance and the right to live in a free democratic society unimpeded by hostile forces that choose to deprive them of these rights and freedoms by military force or other forms of coercion. The First Nations are fighting for what we purport to acknowledge as basic human rights that we not only say we stand for all nations and all peoples, but are now insisting that we are fighting for around the world for. We as a government will have to (1) acknowledge that each and every First Nation is an independent sovereign nation free of legal obligation to Canada (2)ask each and every First Nation if they want to join the Confederation of Canada (3) be willing to accept the answer that they give as binding and no changes to their decision be possible, but through negotiation with them.

In these 3 things lies the crux of the first Nations argument and demands for the right of recognition; the right to self-determination; the right to have what was promised in the treaties adhered to by Canada and Canadians and the right to be asked not forced into confederation. Listen up Canada these people do not want to be Canadians, they wish to remain who the always have been, the Cree Nation, the Mohawk Nation and so on, independent of our laws and finally in control of all that falls within their lands from water, earth air and all that is found in them. They are not begging for handouts as most Canadians think, they are demanding their share of what is found and developed on their lands as does Quebec and all the other provinces that were asked to join the Confederation that is now Canada. If this were to happen not one First Nation would need a handout from anybody they would have the resources to take care of themselves and their own. It becomes understandable why this truth has been buried for so long and why Harper could not and would not allow the Kelowna Accord to stand, because it was too close a frame-work and had too many provisions that acknowledged the First Nations as independent nations sharing a common land with Canada and got too close to ensuring that this was indeed a situation that must be brought into practice and not just in broken promises.

Canadian history always boast that Canada’s relationship with its First Nations People was not by victory in a war, but by treaty. I take this to mean that, each First Nation was a nation onto themselves and should have held at least the status of an independent province and as such should have been consulted at the time of confederation and given the choice of opting in or out of Confederation. Failure to do so by our founding fathers and the arrogance of our assumption that this could go on forever, has us in this quagmire we are facing today. These nations of people by virtue of our own leaders words which state that they are a free people who have never been conquered, making their lands the spoils of war and never asked to join Canada and so in my opinion are legally not Canadians, because they were never asked to be and never agreed to be Canadians, and as such do not fall under Canadian law. Remember this that passing a law does not make things legal, or right if the people you are imposing the law on do not recognise your authority, because it under minds their sovereignty in fact their very existence as who they are. About the only thing that I had right is the fact that the government of Canada is engaging in genocide and is a hypocrite.

The legal definition of treaty found in the legal-dictionary: “A compact made between two or more independent nations with a view to the public Welfare“.

We demand that there be a 2 nation agreement in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians made at the negotiation table and that Palestinians as a nation affirm the state of Israel‘s fight to exist and yet we seek not to acknowledge the right to exist of our Frist Nations as independent nations of people sharing our lands. Funny though I feel it is we Canadians who should be asking and maybe pleading a little for not only forgiveness, but for these nations to become part of the federation of Canada with all of the privileges and benefits (not handouts) that all of all of the provinces enjoy, including the option to remain in Canada, or not and the opt out clause for things the do not agree with; the right to share in all of the profits made from everything on their lands and the right to make their own charter of rights and own laws as do the provinces of Canada right now.

I never intended for this blog to be talking so much about this subject, but I think that is one of the most important discussions and debates going on throughout this land and in Canada right now and must be resolved. I believe that is time for the government of Canada to admit that they are wrong and make a serious attempt to educate Canadians in the truth of the matter and admit that all of the years of misrepresentation of the facts concerning our right to govern these people was wrong and is something that can no longer be allowed and must be reconciled. We as Canadians are being offered a peaceful solution by the First Nations we share this land with. We are being offered a chance as Canadians to sit down at the negotiating table with First Nations and hammer out a solution that can be agreed upon by Canadians and them. To do so we must first be willing to admit that they are free nations and will only become partners of ours once we ask them to and if they choose to. This is no longer a request, this is a demand and this time they are not the naïve, willing to see the good in all people that we first encountered when the first boats landed on their shores. We have hurt them considerably on every humanitarian ground possible, but they have survived all that we could throw at them and are now seeking what is rightfully theirs, that being their independence; their sovereignty; their very right to be who they are. I think that they are waiting to see if we have changed enough, to respect them enough to ask the questions,” Would you like to and would you consider joining our confederation and become a part of Canada and if not, what would it take to make you change your mind, or what sort relationship, or partnership would you accept?” We as a government, a country and a people must then be willing to accept whatever decision they the First Nations make and work hard to develop trade agreements, and other treaties with them. This is in my opinion the only legal remedy available to Canada and we should be quick about solidifying these agreements before another country that shares the same lands as them does,(the USA) for example and the problem gets to bad to resolve by peaceful means.

Now I know that most Canadians believe that the Indian Act was enacted to do good for the Indians, but that is because you probably have not read it and are most likely assuming. Some people just do not care and in that case none of this matters to you anyway, but if you do care , but you thought it was too hard to find out the information, I have put a condensed history of the act at your finger tips and hope you will take a short trip in time and make an informed decision on the justification of the First Nations demands stemming from their discontent. Now if yo really are pressed for time maybe this quote and who said it will open your eyes to the truth, soften your heart to the plight of these people and strengthen your resolve to see that the situation is righted and the oppression stops.

“The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change.”

– John A Macdonald, 1887

Definition of GENOCIDE: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group

This statement ladies and gentlemen of Canada, by Sir John A. Macdonald, in 1887, I submit to you confirms the willful genocide of a people by not only Canada’s governments of the past, but by each and every government since, including the one governing this country today, by virtue of their continued use of the laws that were enacted with the sole purpose of genocide against this county’s First Nations. You may argue that the government of the past knew no better at the time, because this was normal behavior for those times, but that the governments and the court of this land today not only continue to follow these old statutes that it knows to be genocide and in violation of international humanitarian laws and continues through history to further aid these laws strengthening them with stricter sections impeding these people of even legal recourse against such oppression, not at the very least speak to our present government aiding and abetting genocide? There is no moral, or legal ground that I know of that says if you have been committing genocide for over a certain amount of time in your country and it is common place and customary to do so and backed up by the law of the land, then you are allowed to continue to do it. I know of no authority legal or otherwise that says if the problem of committing genocide and righting all of the wrong you have done will be to costly economically, or too complicated, that you can ignore the problem and not at the very least try to seek to give restitution to the people you have injured and stop all of the activity which you know now to be considered by all nations to be genocidal.